Marlyn Gajek- Senior Reflection

The people in the school will do a lot to help you through the tough times in your life. They will leave meetings and drop what they are doing, giving you all of their attention to listen to your problems. They have ways to get you the help that you need in different forms. As someone who comes from an unstable family the enclosure that the school provided helped me get through the tough times. There was always a teacher to whom I could always talk to. Whether at the O’Plaine campus or the Almond one, the teachers always had a way to make me feel comfortable and had options for me to make myself feel safe. They gave me options to talk about the things that happened at home and to see that they cared about me above my grades and school work.

The teachers in student services cared about me and gave me options like: “if you need to go home early, you can” or “if you don’t think you can focus in class you can just sit in my office,” and those options really helped me, not that I actually did it, but knowing that I had that option helped me get through each day.

The teachers that I got to see everyday helped me get through the days. They gave me a sense of security because I knew that they could not do anything to me, but above that they were very nice to everyone. There were teachers that made me laugh everyday and generally made me feel happy to go to school because there I knew I can be happy without having to think about the things that would be going on at home. Though it was not only the teachers but also the students around me. They made me laugh and allowed me to have a good time at school. Though there have been people who have done things to me that have scared me and made me realize that everyone is not always worth my time, there are those who genuinely wish to see me happy and smiling.

Though this was going on throughout middle school and still goes on today, the people in the school have always made each one of my days special and not a day goes by when I am not missing them in the Covid-19 quarantine, and I miss everyone and wish that I can just wish everyone good bye. And to the people who are there to make me smile and that wish to see me happy in my daily lives and to see me happy in my future. To the people who feel upset reading this, and to those who regret that they never noticed. To those who helped me through the tough times and to my friends and teachers. Thank you.